Experts Observe Bitcoin through the Magnifying Glass at NYU Conference

At last Bitcoin has started hitting the headlines of non-cryptographic media sources and received the attention it deserves from people outside the online economy. The touching story of Hal Finney, sudden “successful” investigations into the personality of Satoshi Nakamoto, price fluctuations and regular conferences have been brought to the attention of an audience that had previously never been engaged in mining or trade.

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At last Bitcoin has started hitting the headlines of non-cryptographic media sources and received the attention it deserves from people outside the online economy. The touching story of Hal Finney, sudden “successful” investigations into the personality of Satoshi Nakamoto, price fluctuations and regular conferences have been brought to the attention of an audience that had previously never been engaged in mining or trade.

The NYU School of Law has decided to continue its educational and promotional work to strengthen the link between Bitcoin and the community. It has been joined by NYU Law’s Classical Liberal Institute and Federalist Society to create a more wide-ranging event.

The NYU Conference has been divided into two main panels to cover the most important and crucial questions of the digital environment.

“Bitcoin’s Legal and Policy Issues” attracted many spectators as it was moderated by Carter Dogherty, the reporter for Bloomberg News. The list of speakers featured many household names worth listening to: Jerry Brito of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, John Collins of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Brian Klein of Baker Marquart and the Bitcoin Foundation, and Reuben Grinberg of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

This panel concentrated on the key points of current legislation and has drawn up proposals to make conditions more comfortable for startups and existing companies. An active discussion was opened on money laundering and terrorism financing using the privacy aspect of virtual assets.

Mr. Brito named Bitcoin an alternative to polling, describing it as the more favorable option on the prediction market. He claimed:

“[The Bitcoin prediction market] allows people to bet on the result of an event and, more importantly, aggregates the belief of a market that the outcome of an event will take place.”

“Bitcoin’s Business and Economic Issues” formed the second panel of the conference. CNBC’s Sara Eisen was chosen to moderate the board, but the most interesting speakers were Nicholas Colas of the BNY ConvergEx Group, Steven Englander of Citigroup, Marwan Forzley formerly of Western Union Digital, Antonis Polemitis of Ledra Capital and Alex Waters of Bitcoin startup CoinApex.

Here the main topics of discussion were the potential of Bitcoin to become the world’s leading transaction service and its capabilities to push aside centralized, state-controlled fiat currencies.

Mr. Polemitis took the courage to voice a very well-known fact that Bitcoin grows in value as more people use it; such rapid development might open new markets, perspectives and investment opportunities. He stated:

“If you can imagine even one usage case for Bitcoins … that’s going to create a market, that’s going to create a price.”

Mr. Klein has reminded attendees that Bitcoin has a long way to go before reaching full maturity, but the momentum gained surpasses the abilities of the government to regulate it. According to him:

An opportunity to speak was also granted to less celebrated specialists. First-year law student Max Raskin contributed to the organization of the event and has voiced his opinion serving as a perfect conclusion for the conference:

“Because Bitcoin sits at the intersection of technology, finance and political economy, it attracts a wide array of individuals with different perspectives and motivations. And I wanted to bring this multifaceted discussion to NYU Law.”